A variety of services are offered over a network. In some cases, the location of the services is abstracted away from the service consumer. This is often termed a service in the cloud or “online service”. The online service may be partially offered over the Internet and/or some other network, or perhaps even some of the service may be enabled through local means.
In some cases, it is necessary to obtain a license in order to use an online service. The license is provided by the owner of the service (the licensor) to the consumer of the service (the licensee). The licenses may be single-user licenses, or multi-user licenses. The license thus has a certain scope in terms of number of users. The license may also have a scope in term of which online services may be consumed.
The needs of a licensee are rarely static when it comes to online services. For instance, the licensee may need to license additional users, or perhaps license additional online services. In these cases, the licensee would make provisions with the licensor to alter the scope of the license.